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Review
. 2012 Sep:17 Suppl 1:S54-9.
doi: 10.1007/s12028-012-9755-4.

Emergency neurological life support: approach to the patient with coma

J Stephen Huff  1 , Robert D Stevens, Scott D Weingart, Wade S Smith
Affiliations
Review

Emergency neurological life support: approach to the patient with coma

J Stephen Huff et al. Neurocrit Care. 2012 Sep.

Abstract

Coma is an acute failure of neuronal systems governing arousal and awareness and represents a neurological emergency. When encountering a comatose patient, the clinician must have an organized approach to detect easily remedial causes, prevent ongoing neurologic injury, and determine a hierarchy of diagnostic tests, treatments, and neuromonitoring. Coma was chosen as an Emergency Neurological Life Support (ENLS) protocol because timely medical and surgical interventions can be life-saving, and the initial work-up of such patients is critical to establishing a correct diagnosis.

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